Category: Trusting God

Answer Your Own Prayer, Then Give God the Glory

King David was in trouble. For four years his own son, Absolom, had been secretly gathering a powerful following for himself among the men of Israel by turning their loyalties away from the true king and deceitfully undermining David’s authority. As the story is summarized in...

What Insufferable Itches Have to Do With the Advance of the Gospel

When hard times come, what do people hear from your lips? Those who saw Paul in Rome under house arrest awaiting trial (see the end of Acts) probably didn’t think he was doing so well. After all, he was in chains! I can imagine the guards...

What to Do When You Are Just a Little Birdie in a Big, Bad World

If you’ve ever been in a minor car accident, you might have called a loved one and started off by saying, “Hey, everything’s okay; I’m not hurt. But I’ve been in a wreck.” David starts off Psalm 11 with “everything’s okay” type of language: “In the...

Pain for Him; Gain for Them

Muslim extremists murdered Ayub’s grandmother on one of the islands of Indonesia. We stayed in the home of this warmhearted Christian leader a few years ago. He serves as an elder for the church meeting in a home nearby. We loved this brother and his wife...

Moses, Joshua, Jesus, and Rest

I’m sure you know the feeling of restlessness. There is a longing deep in our bones that desires rest. No nap can fix this lack of rest. Augustine, a prominent Christian from the third and fourth centuries, knew of this restlessness. He prayed, “You have made...

What to Do When Your Sin Brings Overwhelming Guilt

This man was in big trouble! Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! (Psalm 130:1-2) How did he get into such a predicament? Listen closely:...

Shelved or Serving in the Latter Years?

Can you do much for God and his kingdom when you get old? God thinks so. He has used many older people to accomplish valuable kingdom work, recorded colorfully in both the Bible and Christian history. Take Moses. He was 40 when he killed an Egyptian...

My Gains Eaten Away

In Earnest Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea, the superstitious old man on his dilapidated skiff had  no luck catching any big fish for a long time, but this day as he allowed the wind to carry him out much further than before, and after nearly...

Faint, but Pursuing

The name “Gideon” means “hewer” or “one who cuts down”. It carries with it connotations of strength, one who fells great trees, strikes down enemies, and topples mighty opponents. When the angel of the Lord once greeted a man named Gideon, he did so appropriately for...

Surrender Where You’re Planted

Early in the summer as I was leaving my Dad’s farm I noticed a grouping of small plants near the edge of the cornfield close by the house.  In an area about the size of a tennis court, the plants were all about half the size...